


triangulation

by reptilianraven



Category: Let's Play Cyberpunk Red - Polygon (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, Multi, Polyamory, Sharing Many Beds, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26234251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reptilianraven/pseuds/reptilianraven
Summary: Dasha and Vang0 love him the same way they love each other, the same way he loves them both back. He feels their love every day, a gentle wave over the shores of his heart, relentless and ever present, washing over the sands of who he is until the water lulls him to sleep.The only problem, Burger thinks, as he drifts off, is that he’s no genius. He knows they love him. He stands at the shore of their love everyday, feeling the cool ocean of it against his skin. He knows. He knows.He just wishes he knewwhythey love him.-Three points make a triangle, stable and strong. Now if only Burger could figure out what he brings to the relationship.
Relationships: Dapper Dasha/Vang0 Bang0/Burger Chainz
Comments: 12
Kudos: 51





	triangulation

**Author's Note:**

> soft polyam trio???? soft polyam trio!!!
> 
> no proofreading, we die with our typos and grammatical errors. wrote this in like literally jus 6 hours so here u go!!

Burger has learned many things upon entering a relationship with Vang0 and Dasha. Here’s three things, off the top of his head:

1) Vang0 is a messy sleeper. He kicks and sprawls his limbs everywhere and it isn’t out of character for him to end up halfway off the mattress in the middle of the night.

2) Dasha is a bit more contained, but at the core of it, is just as rowdy in her sleep. She tosses and turns and has the habit of throwing her arm out in whatever direction with some really impressive strength, given that she’s unconscious. 

3) They’re both blanket hogs. Before Burger stepped in and solved this problem, Vang0 and Dasha would regularly get into petty arguments about the other’s blanket stealing tendencies. 

Having Dasha and Vang0 sleep next to each other is, in simple terms, a mess. They’re like human beyblades, battling it out with sleep-soft movements and murmured snuffles. Dasha would push Vang0 off the bed and Vang0 would clutch at the blanket, pulling Dasha down with him. Vang0 would accidentally kick Dasha in her sleep and Dasha, with her quick reflexes, would have Vang0 in a chokehold before she’s even fully cognizant Vang0 is tapping out. It was a problem.

However, it didn’t take a genius to figure out the solution. 

It took Burger.

Burger realized that the only way to get the both of them to behave in their sleep, the only way to get the both of their limbs to stay generally organized, is to give the both of them something to hug.

And boy, oh, boy, is Burger just made out of hug material.

“Tomorrow—” Dasha says, pulling on one of her sleep shirts—A.K.A. one of Burger’s old shirts—over her head. Her hair messes up adorably. “—We can call Hypo and tell him what we’ve learned about Abott and—”

“Hey, shush up, Dash,” Vang0 groans from where he’s already lying down next to Burger, face buried in Dasha’s pillow. “You said no work talk in bed.”

Dasha purses her lips. “This isn’t work talk, it’s just. It’s. Work _adjacent_ talk, it’s—” Her serious tone is betrayed by her own yawn. 

“It’s snooze time, that’s what,” Burger says, opening his arms. “Come on in.”

Vang0 lifts his head and wiggles his body over the Burger’s left side, throwing a leg over Burger’s hip and wrapping his arms around Burger’s arm like a less limbed octopus with a mission for clinging. Dasha pouts for a moment, but she does settle onto the bed, cuddling onto Burger’s right side. She places her head over Burger’s shoulder and her hand over Burger’s chest. 

“We’ll talk about it over breakfast.” Dasha says sleepily, drawing idle shapes on Burger’s chest. 

“We’ll talk about it _after_ breakfast,” Vang0 murmurs into Burger’s bicep, eyes already shut, words drifting off. “I don’t wanna talk about murder when I’m getting my cereal fix, what the fuck.”

“We’ll talk about it when we talk about it,” Burger says diplomatically, holding them both closer. “Snooze time now.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” Dasha slurs, halfway down the road to dreamland.

“Not the boss of me either,” Vang0 says, always wanting to have the last word in.

“Of course,” Burger laughs softly. “Good night, guys. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Dasha and Vang0 say together, one of the few things they can agree on. 

Because that’s another thing Burger has learned. Dasha and Vang0 love him the same way they love each other, the same way he loves them both back. He feels their love every day, a gentle wave over the shores of his heart, relentless and ever present, washing over the sands of who he is until the water lulls him to sleep. 

The only problem, Burger thinks, as he drifts off, is that he’s no genius. He knows they love him. He stands at the shore of their love everyday, feeling the cool ocean of it against his skin. He knows. He knows. 

He just wishes he knew _why_ they love him.

He can’t figure it out.

-

Burger knows it’s a problem, how much he wonders about this whole “why do they love me?” thing. It’s a thought that slithers its way into the softest of moments, moments when all three of them are happy and enjoying themselves, moments when he’s holding both of their hands, moments when he can feel the love in his heart tutn into molten sunlight. No matter how bright the moment is, this question seeps in like an oil spill. Why do they love you?

Maybe he wonders so much because he’s a nomad, because he spent a lot of his life on the road where everybody in the pack had to have some sort of use, some kind of specialty. Maybe he wonders so much because he grew up on a farm, because he spent his formative years knowing just how important it is for everybody to have a skill they chipped in for the benefit of the whole group. Maybe he wonders so much because he wears his heart on his sleeve, and no matter how much he loves, that doesn’t get rid of the fear he has that this heart of his may just break, if he doesn’t figure this out. 

Burger is thinking about it, just on the edge of falling asleep. They’re in his van, all three of them on a stakeout, but Dasha called first watch so he and Vang0 are on the mattress in the back of the van, trying to catch some zzzs before their respective shifts. Vang0 is cuddled into Burger’s side, breath shallow and even.

Until it’s not.

Vang0 starts to shift violently, fist clenched in the sheet, face crumpled up in something like pain or fear.

“Vang0,” Burger places a gentle hand on Vang0’s shoulder.

Vang0 makes a pained noise, still in the throes of whatever monster he’s battling in his sleep this time.

“Vang0,” Burger says again, a bit more loud, shaking Vang0 a little bit. “You’re having a nightmare, you have to wake up, buddy.”

A tear falls from Vang0’s closed eyes and it makes Burger’s heart clench.

“Vang0!” 

“Fuck!” Vang0 shoots up, eyes wide and wild, his breaths coming in short, rapid huffs, as he scrambles away from Burger, trying to figure out what’s going on.

“It’s okay,” Burger says softly. “You’re safe. You’re in my van, Dasha is just outside with her cool binoculars, I’m right here.” Burger slowly places a hand on Vang0’s trembling one. “I’m right here.”

“Right,” Vang0 nods very quickly, intertwining his fingers with Burger’s. He barks out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, totally, everything’s fine. Yeah.”

Vang0 folds his knees up to his chest, hugging himself with his other arm as he gets his breathing under control. Now that he isn’t scared, he retreats into a more familiar emotion but nonetheless one that still makes Burger’s heart tight. He retreats into self-deprecating shame.

“Do you want to be held?” Burger asks.

“That’d be nice, yeah,” Vang0 says, muffled by his arm. 

Burger shifts, pulling their hands apart so that Burger can put that arm around Vang0 and hold him close. Vang0 basically slumps against Burger’s hold, leaning against Burger. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Burger says, whisper soft.

“Nah,” Vang0 scoffs, mean and cutting, but not to Burger. Never to Burger, always to himself. “It was just the usual vague images of a life I don’t recognize and some accusatory nightmare voice telling me everybody from my past is probably glad I’m gone, good riddance, I should hate myself, all that jazz.” Vang0 sighs. “It’s no biggie.”

Burger frowns. “Vang0—”

“I’m fine, I’m—”

“You don’t need to be fine,” Burger squeezes his hold on Vang0 gently. “I’m here for you, for the good times and the bad, okay?”

Vang0 says, voice so soft that Burger would miss it if he wasn’t always listening to Vang0, “Okay.”

“Do you want to try going back to sleep?”

“I might have another nightmare. I don’t want to disturb you.”

“I don’t mind,” Burger says firmly. “I want to be with you.”

Vang0 looks up. He never looks at Burger like he’s a puzzle. He always looks at Burger like he’s some kind of blessing. “You do?”

Burger smiles. “I do.”

Burger falls asleep like that, holding Vang0 close to his body, so happy, so grateful, that Vang0—no matter how hard it is for him—brings some kind of vulnerability to the table. He offers his heart, his mind, his soul to Burger and Dasha, no matter how much his instincts tell him to build walls.

Vang0 lets those walls down with them.

What is Burger doing?

-

Being in a relationship with Dasha and Vang0 is awesome for many reasons, but one of them is because they’re so different. Vang0 is snarky and quick witted, lightning and electricity zapping around, the component of the world that brings so much of what they know to life. Dasha is a bit steadier than that, strong and dependable, a flame burning into the firewood, wonderful and dangerous and warm. Together, they’re one hell of a pair. Burger wonders where he fits in here. 

On jobs, watching them is like watching an explosion in slow motion, watching Vang0 spark into action with his mind, watching Dasha burn into suspects with her plans, the both of them complementing each other perfectly.

Off the job is where another difference rears its head. Vango has no problem switching from work mode to chill mode, letting that lightning in his heart calm to a little buzz. 

Dasha, however—

Dasha has trouble putting out that fire.

Burger wakes up from his sleep when he realizes Dasha’s side of the bed is empty, the lamp at the other end of the storage switched on, Dasha sitting at a desk with her back turned to the bed. 

They’re in one of Burger’s storage warehouses, the one he keeps specifically and furnished amazingly just in case they need to lay low for a job. And lay low they sure are doing, because this latest job got them, er, well. Kind of hunted down by a very large and angry gang in the city. They’re going to need more than firepower to win this one, and thus they needed a place to plan and also rest, so here they are.

Expertly, Burger pulls at one of the pillows and switches his arm with it in Vang0’s octopus cuddle hold. Vang0 snuffles a bit, but accepts the replacement with no fanfare, allowing Burger to stand from the mattress and walk over to where Dasha is seated.

“Hey,” Burger leans against the wall, looking at Dasha. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Can’t sleep,” Dasha says, not looking up from where she’s scribbling at her holopad, scratching out boxes of a flowchart and making another box. “I have to think of a plan.”

“You can think of a plan tomorrow,” Burger urges softly. “You need to rest.”

“I can’t,” Dasha says, something on the edge of desperation at her voice, dampened only by exhaustion. “I have to—”

“Dasha—”

“ _Burger_ ,” Dasha whips her head up, and in her eyes, there’s worry and fear and determination, all mixed together in the gaze of somebody who needs to close her eyes. She puts the holopad down, leaning back into the seat and sighing. “We got into this mess because of me. We’re in danger because of me. Because I didn’t see them coming.”

Burger tilts his head. “Vang0 and I didn’t see it coming either. Do you think it’s our fault too?”

“No, of course not, I—”

“Then why do you get all the blame for the same thing?”

“Because,” Dasha’s shoulders slump. “Because I have to.”

“No you don’t,” Burger crouches next to the seat and takes Dasha’s hand. He runs his thumb over her knuckles. “You’re not alone. Problems we face, we face them together, yeah?”

Dasha, slowly but surely, nods. “Yeah.”

Burger presses a soft kiss to the back of Dasha’s hands and looks up, revelling in the soft blush on her face. “Come back to bed?”

“Okay,” Dasha smiles, a little goofy, a little perfect. 

They get back into bed; Burger slips his arm back into Vang0’s sleepy hold and Dasha cuddles close to Burger’s body. The flame of Dasha’s heart dances so close to Burger’s shore, and as he drifts off, he wonders just what a shore has to offer.

-

Burger never tells them about his whole issue. About the question that pops up into his head over and over again, the doubt never leaving him alone. He never tells them about how his footsteps along his shore are followed by a dark shadow that always asks him why why why. He never tells them because they love him, and isn’t it silly to ask for the specifics? He doesn’t know. He just knows that whatever this shadow is—dark and insecure and doubtful—is something he doesn’t want touching the two brightest parts of his life.

He’d do anything for them, Dasha and Vang0. 

That’s his last coherent though, as they’re running away from an abandoned warehouse rigged to explode in five—

Vang0 is running at Burger’s side, complaining about how their life is a B-list action movie now, apparently. 

Four—

Dasha is running at his other side, telling Vang0 to shut up and run faster.

Three—

Burger, running between them—

Two—

His shore a mess from the protective tempest of love—

One—

He’d do anything for them.

And then nothing.

And then—

Burger wakes up with no Vang0 cuddling his arm, with no Dasha dancing her fingers on Burger’s chest. He wakes up to a faint beeping and a deep ache in his body and a white ceiling and he’s starting to put the pieces together when Vang0 pops his head into his field of vision.

“Burger?” Vang0 says, nervous and jittery and relieved all at the same time, immediately reaching for one of Burger’s hands, threading their fingers together. That feels _much_ better, Burger smiles. Vang0 looks to the other side of Burger’s bed. “Dasha, wake up, Burger’s awake.” 

“Mornin’ Burg,” Dasha leans in from where she was sitting at the other side of his bedside, a tired smile on her face as she takes his other hand in hers. “You really scared us back there.”

Burger blinks slowly, revelling in the feeling of their hands holding his. “What happened?”

“You happened, you idiot!” Vang0 says, hunching up his shoulders like an aggrieved cat with its fur on end. “You shielded us from the explosion!”

“Oh yeah,” Burger grins. “Cool.”

“Cool? Cool!?” Vang0 looks pained. “Burger!”

“Vang0,” Dasha hisses. “Chill pill. Just a little.”

“ _You_ take a chill pill.”

“I’m _completely_ chill.”

“You’re biting your lip, you only do that when you’re stressed or worried or—”

“At least I’m not screeching.”

“I am not screeching!”

“God,” Burger laughs softly. “I love you guys so much.”

Dasha and Vang0 pause in their adorable bickering to look at Burger, both with concern in their eyes. 

Dasha says, “Burger, thank you for what you did, but, please.” She squeezes his hand. “Please don’t ever put yourself in danger for us.”

“Seconded,” Vang0 mumbles.

“I can’t help it,” Burger says. “I love you two.”

“Well we love you too,” Vang0 replies. “And we’d like it if you didn’t end up in the hospital.”

“Seconded,” Dasha says.

And it’s a good moment. Burger is here, with his partners, and he loves them, and they love him, but—

The shadow creeps in.

Maybe it’s because he’s probably loopy on painkillers, maybe it’s because his shore is still recovering from the storm, maybe it’s because his heart isn’t on his sleeve, it’s in the hands of these two amazing people at his sides. Maybe it’s all those reasons or none of them at all, that Burger asks, “Why?”

Dasha tilts her head and Vang0 says “Why what?”

“Is it okay,” Burger says slowly. “If I ask you guys, uh, why you love me?”

A beat of silence. 

And then barely contained chaos.

Vang0 says, “Oh god, are we making you feel unloved, I—”

Dasha scrambles in too with, “We love you so much, but if we’re not showing that enough we’re going to—”

“--am going to be so much more sincere and—”

“—be more honest and communicate more and—”

“No, no,” Burger laughs, his heart so full of love. “It’s not that. I’m just wondering. ‘Cuz, y’know. You two do so much. You guys are amazing and I’m just,” Burger knows his smile must look sad. “I’m just me. I don’t know what I bring to this relationship, is all.”

Dasha and Vang0 are silent for a moment, looking at each other, before they both turn to burger.

Dasha says, “You bring yourself to the relationship.”

“Yeah,” Vang0 says, running his thumb over the back of Burger’s hand. “You bring somebody who’s not afraid of the bad parts of my brain or my personality.”

“You bring somebody,” Dasha lifts Burger’s hand, pressing a soft kiss to his palm. “Who cares about me and reminds me to be easier on myself.

“You bring somebody who’s awesome and kickass,” Vang0 grins. “And you balance Dasha and I out.”

“You bring you,” Dasha says, smiling at Burger. “Wonderful, kind, soft you.”

Burger is crying. He is so totally crying, but he’s crying in the way that the light in his heart is just so much that some of it has to come out of him in the form of tears. He smiles at his two partners, he squeezes their hands, he says, “I love you guys.”

“I love you too,” Dasha and Vang0 both say. 

“You should get some rest, though,” Dasha says, pulling up the blanket to Burger’s chin.

“Yup, it’s time for snoozeland,” Vang0 says, reclining the hospital bed lower. 

“We’ll be right here with you.”

“Yeah, I’ll make a scene if a nurse tries to shoo us away.”

“You made a scene earlier when the vending machine got your candy bar stuck.”

“It’s 2045! Vending machines should be better than this—”

Burger falls asleep to the back and forth of their words, their voices a gentle wave, one after the other, lulling him into a soft place to rest.

-

Burger has learned many things, upon entering a relationship with Vang0 and Dasha. Here’s three things, off the top of his head.

1) Vang0 is lightning, quick and sharp, a light in the darkness.

2) Dasha is fire, steady and bright, a warmth in the cold.

3) Burger is a shore, and he doesn’t quite know what that means, but he knows it means he’s himself, and that that’s all he needs to be.

That’s what he brings to this relationship; his hearts in the hands of his partners, his love splayed out against the sands, the waves of their love washing to the shore over and over.

When he sleeps, Burger dreams of a beach. He doesn't turn back to look at his shadow. He walks forward to stand in the sea.

**Author's Note:**

> im [actualbird](http://actualbird.tumblr.com/) on tumblr. come say hi or leave me a comment :DDD


End file.
